2010-05-02

LANSING, Mich. – The Lansing Lugnuts (14-9)
received a walk-off single from Chris Hopkins in the bottom of the
ninth to
defeat the Fort Wayne TinCaps (11-11), 3-2, and capture their
1,000th
all-time victory before a Saturday night crowd of 8,212 at Cooley
Law
School Stadium.The Lugnuts' first
victory came on April 6, 1996, an 18-3 rout
of the now-defunct Rockford Cubbies. 5,138 days later, the
franchise, now
with three All-Star Games and two Midwest League Championships under
its
belt, reached the 1,000 win mark in dramatic fashion.After losing a 2-1
lead in the eighth inning on Everett
Williams' two-out RBI single, the Lugnuts rallied in the ninth
against Fort
Wayne reliever Hayden Beard (1-1).Balbino Fuenmayor
lined a one-out single and was replaced by
pinch-runner Oliver Dominguez, who swiftly stole second base. Ryan
Goins
drew a four-pitch walk to bring up Hopkins, activated from the
Disabled
List hours earlier in the day. The Oakland native sliced a 2-2 pitch
from
Beard down the right field line, sending Dominguez racing for home
and
touching off a jubilant celebration on the field.Steve Turnbull (1-2)
earned the victory in relief for Lansing,
striking out all four hitters he faced. In all, Lugnuts pitchers
struck out
14 Fort Wayne batters, including six strikeouts in three innings of
relief
work by left-hander Matt Wright.Having split the
first two games in their four-game series,
the Lugnuts and TinCaps play the third game in their set on Sunday
at 2:05
p.m., a Kids Day at Cooley Law School Stadium. Lansing right-hander
Chad
Jenkins (1-1, 3.75) is scheduled to oppose Fort Wayne southpaw Mike
Watt
(1-1, 3.66).